How's your morning been? If you rely on Google Drive, maybe not so good. Google Drive is experiencing a widespread outage today, preventing access to files and documents. Google is working on the issue and expects to have more news later this afternoon.

You'll know if you're affected just by opening Drive. The page is simply failing to load for some people, displaying the message "The server encountered an error. Please try again later." It's been fine for me today, but several members of the AP team have been unable to load Drive at all. Hangouts might also be having problems, but we haven't seen any issues on our end.

You can keep tabs on the situation via Google's app status page. Google promises an update by 1:55PM (presumably Pacific) today. We'll update when that happens.

Status page says that Gmail had issues a few days ago. Might have been the problem.

epps720

It's working for me but I have a question for Google Drive users. Is there a way to password protect individual files on Drive? I haven't located a way of doing it.

LethalLunatic

Why would you want to password protect each file? Drive is mostly a vessel. So you can do anything from your OS side and password protect your way as you want with any app. Easiest way is with file encryption software.

epps720

I have one a couple files with some personal information on it. On my work computer I am logged into my google account for email which leaves Drive open for anyone to easily view. Not that I think anyone would do it, I would just feel much safer with a password option for that file.

LethalLunatic

If you worry about your files on your work computer I wouldn't even sync your files on your work computer. If you view your files then always use your browser in incognito mode. And just close incognito when you're done. Safest way is to never have anything open in the first place. Also setup your browser to clear everything every time you close it.

I don't think Google would have something like online file encryption. The only solution for that would be encrypting the files while opening them on your computer in your Google drive app. But it would still be painful to do that at multiple locations and not all encryption solutions are mobile friendly.

If you are really worries about security always make sure to lock your computer when you walk away from your desk and change it to a hard password no one but you can remember. The best security comes from yourself.

Good luck

WishMonster

I'm pretty sure it's possible to encrypt PDF & docx files if it helps

WishMonster

How about some free storage as compensation? Come on Google 😀

Mix

Thank goodness it wasn't a SwiftKey like issue and giving the wrong people access.

My mayonnaise & knees fetish will forever remain a secret!

someone755

Yup, nobody knows about your fetish.

ro964

I've seen this error for weeks when trying to load documents and sheets in Google Drive's web. The problem didn't seem to happen on my smartphone.

Themewtwogamer478 Mew

Well when I was at school the other day I was having problems with my email Google drive is I think not bad but needs more improvement and glad the issue is resolved but eh needs more improvement